Technical vocabulary is essential for communication. A strong vocabulary allows people to convey ideas, even without extensive grammatical knowledge. Learning new words should take priority over learning grammar, as vocabulary provides the core building blocks of language that make communication possible in the first place. Syntax and grammar are important, but are best understood in the service of expanding one's vocabulary.

1. Technical vocabulary

2. The importance of vocabulary
• "Without grammar very little can be
conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can
be conveyed." (Wilkins 1972:111)
• "When students travel, they don't carry
grammar books, they carry dictionaries."
(Krashen in Lewis 1993: iii)

3. "The more one considers the matter, the more
reasonable it seems to suppose that lexis is
where we need to start from, the syntax needs
to be put to the service of words and not the
other way round." (Widdowsen in Lewis
1993:115)